Beyond PAPRSB Institute of Health Sciences Newsletter Universiti Brunei Darussalam

Jan—Mar 2018 Issue 12

Dr. Hajah Rafidah binti Haji Gharif (middle), the Dean of Pengiran Anak Puteri Rashidah Sa’adatul Bolkiah Institute of Health Sciences, and

Prof. David Koh Soo Quee (most left), the Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation), with the programme leaders and

representatives of Biomedical Science, Medicine, Nursing and Midwifery, Pharmacy and Dentistry courses at the opening ceremony of the

Higher Education Expo held from February 10-11, 2018 at the Bridex Hall 2, Jerudong.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

3rd National Scientific Symposium 2 Unravelling the First Bruneian Genomes 5

Inaugural BLS Course at IHS 2 Oral Health Awareness Exhibition 6

IHS Hosted IIUM Students 3 CUMEC 2018 6

34th National Day Celebration 3 PhD Candidate Secured NUS Fellowship 7

IHS and Trinity College Dublin Sign MOU 4 PhD Candidate at AMEA Symposium 7

OGDC Cancer Awareness Exhibition 4 University DY Showcase 8

IHS Celebrates CNY 8

3rd National Scientific Symposium Held at IHS

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From Friday 19th—Sunday 21st January 2018, the

Institute of Health Sciences (IHS) and the Brunei

Darussalam Association of Medical Laboratory

Scientists (BAMLS) jointly organised the 3rd National

Scientific Symposium. The symposium carried the

theme, ‘Innovating Precision Medicine for Patient

Care’, showcasing three sub-themes: cancer,

lifestyle diseases and infectious diseases. The event

was graced by the presence of the Minister of

Health, Yang Berhormat Dato Paduka Dr Haji Mohd

Isham bin Jaafar, as the guest of honour at the

opening ceremony of the event. 200 participants

comprising of medical laboratory professionals,

healthcare professionals, academics, postgraduate

and undergraduate students attended the 3-day symposium. The symposium offered 9 workshops and 9 symposia, with

presentations geared towards the current trends and

practices, as well as the future outlook of modern laboratory

medicine in the era of precision medicine. Two keynote

speakers were invited to deliver the keynote address,

namely Professor Sir David Lane, the Chief Scientist of

Agency for Science and Technology and Research (A*STAR),

Singapore and the Director of the p53 Laboratory, and

Professor Wasun Chantratita, the Chief of Virology and

Molecular Microbiology, Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol

University. Professor Sir David Lane delivered a keynote

address titled ‘The Regulation of p53 in Human Cancer’,

while Professor Wasun Chantratita delivered one titled

‘Transforming Medicine: Genomics, Bioinformatics and

Global Health’.

IHS as Newly Accredited AHA Centre Conducted Inaugural BLS Course

The PAPRSB Institute of Health Sciences (IHS)

had been accredited as an American Heart

Association (AHA) training centre in November

2017. With this new status, IHS conducted its

first Basic Life Support (BLS) course on 29th

January 2018. The first batch of 22 paramedical

trainees attended the course following an

opening ceremony with the Dean of IHS, Dr

Hajah Rafidah Haji Gharif, as the guest of

honour. IHS is licensed to provide AHA-certified

Basic Life Support (BLS), Advanced

Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS) and

Paediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), as well

as conducting first-aid and heart-saver training.

The former three courses are exclusively for

healthcare professionals, while the latter two

courses are open to all. Upon completion of the

courses, each participant will be presented with

an AHA-certified completion and certificate,

which is valid for two years. For further

information, please contact:

cprtraining.ihs@ubd.edu.bn.

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The PAPRSB Institute of Health Sciences (IHS) welcomed five

final year Bachelor of Nursing students from the Kulliyyah of

Nursing, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM),

Malaysia as part of a Student Mobility Exchange Programme

between IIUM-UBD that started in 2015. The ongoing

collaboration between the IIUM and UBD signifies the strong

partnership that could be expanded to cultivation of intellect

and research. Specifically, the programme aims to give

students opportunities to observe the teaching facilities

available in the Institute and to gain clinical experience in a

hospital-based setting. The programme ran from January

20th to March 3rd 2018, and was facilitated by IHS nursing

lecturers, Cikgu Mursidi bin Hj Ali and Cikgu Pg Norasmah

binti Pg Hj Ismail.

During the programme, the students were placed at the

Emergency Department and the Women and Children

Centre, RIPAS Hospital for their clinical placement. They

learnt numerous nursing skills pertaining to the care of adult

and pediatric emergencies from this. They were also involved

in problem-based learning and simulation activities at the

Institute. The simulation activity involved caring for a SIM

Mum (a high fidelity women simulator), which was simulated

to experience post-partum haemorrhage during labour. This

activity allowed the students to identify, plan and provide

appropriate interventions or management during the crisis.

The students also visited the Pantai Jerudong Specialist

Centre, the Jerudong Park Medical Centre, the Lambak

Kanan Health Centre and the Renal Dialysis Rimba Clinic.

During the weekends, they had the opportunity to enjoy the

culture, tradition and historical places in Brunei with their

student buddies. At the end of the programme, the students

had the opportunity to share their experiences with the rest

of the Institute by means of presentations. They were also

presented with Certificate of Attendance by the Programme

Leader of Nursing and Midwifery Programme at the end of

the programme.

IHS Hosted IIUM Students in Student Mobility Exchange Programme

IHS Staff and Students Celebrate Brunei’s 34th National Day Celebration

MOU Signed Between IHS, UBD and Trinity College, Dublin

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On 30th January 2018,

the PAPRSB Institute of

Health Sciences (IHS)

and Trinity College,

University of Dublin,

signed a memorandum

of understanding (MOU)

as a partner school for

the BHSc Medicine

programme. Signing on

behalf of UBD was Dr

Hjh Rafidah Binti Haji

Gharif, Dean of IHS,

while Trinity College

Dublin, was

represented by

Professor Michael Gill,

Dean of School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin. He was joined by Associate Professor Martina Hennessy, Medical

Education Consultant of Trinity College Dublin. Following the signing ceremony, both representatives from Trinity College

toured IHS, in particular the SimCentre facility at IHS.

IHS at OGDC Cancer Awareness Exhibition

A one-day cancer awareness exhibition

was held on 25th February at the Oil

and Gas Discovery Centre (OGDC) in

Seria to commemorate World Cancer

Day. The event featured exhibits from

PAPRSB Institute of Health Sciences

(IHS), UBD and Children’s Cancer

Foundation (YASKA), which were

aimed to raise public awareness on

cancer, and its causes and effects. Two

lecturers from IHS, Dr Mas Rina Wati

binti Haji Abdul Hamid and Dr Siti

Nornadhirah binti Haji Amdani,

delivered talks on causes of cancer and

measures to prevent it. Additionally,

Dr Dk Nuramalina Hafizah binti Pg Haji

Mumin, another lecturer from IHS,

facilitated the ‘Let’s Talk’ science

session. Additionally, information on

cancer-related research taking place at

IHS were displayed as educational

posters at the event. Both

undergraduate and postgraduate

students from IHS were also present at

the event to tend to visitor’s questions.

During the exhibition, two members of

YASKA, Khairi Akmal bin Maidin and

Siu Tzyy Wei, shared their life stories

as cancer survivors. Visitors were also

entertained with interactive family

quizzes, DIY cell making, tours of

OGDC’s ‘Explore-A-Saurus’-themed

exhibition and a science show called

‘Hot and Cold’ conducted by OGDC’s

science communicators.

Research Focus: Unravelling the First Bruneian Genomes

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Advancement in next generation sequencing (NGS) and computational technologies over the last decade has allowed

sequencing of the entire human genome to be routinely performed for various biomedical and clinical applications. The

underlying genetic causes of many human phenotypes and diseases, such as cancer, have also come to light with the

identification of variants (e.g. single nucleotide variant (SNV) and insertion/deletion (indel)) derived from these data. Indeed,

prescription of pharmacogenomic treatments incorporating personalised genetic data is now in practice for a number of

genetic diseases. However, realisation of true precision medicine can only be achieved when genetic variants from both healthy

and diseased groups can be analysed and compared to ascertain the causative aberrant genetic elements.

In Brunei, little is known about the genetic variation within the local

population groups. To date, although genetic testing for some

inherited diseases and certain cancer types have been made available

in the country, none of the variants identified has been deposited in

NCBI’s dbSNP database, and in fact, less than 10 human DNA

sequences can be found in the NCBI’s GenBank database. The much

needed effort and challenge to quickly fill in these gaps has been

taken up by two final year biomedical science undergraduate

students, Mirza Azmi and Nabil Abdul Kadir, at our Institute. Both

are under the supervision of Dr Lu Zen Huat and the project is in

collaboration with Dr Hj Abdul Ghani Hj Naim of Institute of Applied

Data Analytics.

The whole genome of two Dusun individuals from Brunei were recently

sequenced, using the NGS method, as a small part of The Simons

Foundation’s Human Diversity Project. While focusing on the

evolutionary genetics, detailed analysis was not done for any of the

300+ individual genomes. Mirza and Nabil were therefore tasked with

analysing the raw sequencing data and identifying all the genetic

variants in the two individuals. After overcoming the steep learning

curve in genomics, bioinformatics, data

analytics and Linux computing, they have to

plough through NGS data exceeding 150GB

using some state-of-the-art bioinformatics

tools running on the high performance Linux

server at the Information Communication

Technology Centre (ICTC). In brief, raw sequencing reads derived from the genome of the two

individuals were first mapped (i.e. aligned) against different versions of the latest human reference

genome before all the potential variants were discovered and quality-filtered. Each of the two individuals was found to harbour

approximately 4.1 million genetic variants. Preliminary analysis shows that more than 100,000 of the variants have not been

reported in the NCBI’s dbSNP database. Mirza and Nabil next attempted to look at the molecular and inferred clinical impacts

of these variants. They were able to identify SNVs in genes associated with drug response and genetic diseases. For instance, a

SNV falling on the miRNA regulating the Brca2 gene expression was identified in the female Dusun and this SNV has been

predicted to increase the risk of breast cancer. Findings from the current works will be presented during their final year project

presentation.

Although the work thus far have been limited to only two Bruneian individuals, this whole genome variant discovery project is,

to our best knowledge, first of its kind in the Sultanate. Future research in population genetics and genomics will lead to better

understanding of diseases and more accurate prediction of drug responses within the different Bruneian population groups.

Ultimately, the practice of genomic medicine is expected to greatly improve the healthcare in the country. This is an important

milestone in the progress of genomic medicine at not only the university, but also the Sultanate.

One small step for

human genomics,

one giant leap for

personalized

medicine in Brunei

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Oral Health Awareness Event Organised by IHS Dentistry Students

IHS Staff and Student Attend 2nd CUMEC 2018

The first cohort of dentistry students from IHS organised the first oral health event by Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) on

18th March 2018 at the Taman Haji Sir Muda Omar Ali Saifuddien. The event was held to commemorate World Oral Health

Day, which is celebrated every 20th March. The theme of the event was ‘Say Ahh! Think Mouth, Think Health’. The cohort

leader, Lim Pei Chee, said that the main purpose of the event was to promote oral health hygiene to the public, including the

technique of brushing teeth and to share the different ways of achieving oral hygiene. Additionally, she said that they want to

emphasise the link between oral health and general health as a lot of people are unaware of the link between the two.

The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is a public university that has been ranked as no. 46 in the QS World ranking

2018. CUHK organised a 2nd Medical Education Conference with the key themes of Bioethics, Professionalism and Work-based

Assessment. This two-day conference aimed to share and learn from experts in medical and healthcare professional education

related to the three key themes mentioned above. Around 265 participants from 22 countries participated in the conference,

with a total of 9 international speakers from National University of Singapore, Columbia University, University of

Washington, Monash University, National Taiwan University, Peking University, Newcastle University Australia, Deakins

University and University of British Columbia, Canada.

At CUMEC, one of IHS staff, Dr Nurolaini Kifli

participated in one of the parallel free paper sessions

by sharing the Institute’s students community project

in enhancing breastfeeding activities from the 2nd

ASEAN Medical Students’ Project in 2017. The title of

the project was ‘Involving Healthcare Students in a

Community Project to Promote Breastfeeding’.

Another IHS staff, Dr Lim Ya Chee, was also one of the

participants this year and she presented her pilot study

on the ‘Relationship Between First Year Medical

Students Results and Their Entrance MMI Scores: A

Pilot Study” while Dr Jagjit Singh Dhaliwal presented

his study titled ‘A Study to Evaluate the Awareness of

Hepatitis B Disease among Undergraduate Dental

Students’. A 3rd year Medical Student, Hailey Ong Hui

Ling, also participated in the CUMEC to present her

community project entitled ‘Gift of Life Donations

(GOLD) for Childhood Cancer’. Overall, those involved have expressed that it was a worthwhile experience and that much

knowledge was gained in assessment and teaching, as well as widening their network in Medical/ Health educations. For more

information please go to: http://www.ome.cuhk.edu.hk/cumec2018/

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IHS PhD Candidate Secured Fellowship Position at NUS

IHS PhD Candidate at 9th AMEA Symposium

Fakhriedzwan Idris is a PhD in Biomedical Science candidate at the PAPRSB Institute of Health

Sciences (IHS) under the Neuroinfectious Diseases group, supervised by Dr Suwarni Diah and Dr

Siti Hanna as well as Dr Zainun Zaini from the Ministry of Health as his clinical laboratory

supervisor. He is currently completing his PhD with a thesis titled ‘Establishment of In Vitro

Blood-brain Barrier Models for the Study of Dengue Encephalitis’. In this study, he has

successfully developed a murine in vitro blood-brain barrier model, which is subsequently used

as an infection model to study the mechanisms of dengue neuropathogenesis. His research

interests also include host-viral interaction, particularly the roles of viral glycosylation and

glycans during cell infection by dengue virus. Upon the completion of his PhD, he will start his

fellowship position at the National University of Singapore (NUS) as a research fellow under the

Microbiology and Immunology team to study the factors involved in the in vitro and in vivo

fitness and virulence of dengue virus.

Dr Divya Thirumalai Rajam, a PhD candidate from IHS, went

to the 9th Asian Medical Education Association (AMEA)

Symposium cum Frontiers in Medical and Health Sciences

Education 2017. The theme of the symposium was ‘Preparing

Healthcare learners for a Changing World’ and was held at

University of Hong Kong from 14th—16th December 2017.

The AMEA is an institution-based association of the Asian

medical schools, which was established in June 2001. The

aims of the Association are to identify and recognize that

medicine is globalized, to enhance the characteristic features

and strengths of Asian medical education, to share

information and experience about medical education, and to

strengthen and promote good pedagogy and research on

medical education. The AMEA strives to take a more

proactive role in raising its profile as the leading association

in medical education around the world and to promote inter-

school and multidisciplinary collaborations. The conference

was hosted by renowned speakers in medical education from

all over the world. During the conference, Dr Divya was

selected to present her e-poster presentations based on two

abstracts titled ‘Living in International Campuses: An

Integrated Review on Experiences of International

Undergraduate Medical Students’ and ‘Outcomes of

Internalization of Undergraduate Medical Educaton: An

Integrated Review’, from which she was awarded ’Award of

Merit’ for her poster presentation. She also attended a

workshop on ‘Community-based Service Learning in Medical

Education’, which coached participants in organizing feasible

community program for prevailing health issues.

PAPRSB Institute of Health Sciences

Universiti Brunei Darussalam

Jalan Tungku Link, BE1410

Brunei Darussalam

Phone: +673 2463001

+673 246 0922/0923

Ext 2202/2206/2266

Fax: +673 2461081

Website: http://ihs.ubd.edu.bn

E-mail: office.ihs@ubd.edu.bn

You may freely distribute copies

of this newsletter and

information about the PAPRSB

Institute of Health Sciences to

any interested parties.

The Pengiran Anak Puteri Rashidah Sa’datul Bolkiah

(PAPRSB) Institute of Health Sciences

Since its inauguration in September 2000, UBD’s PAP Rashidah Sa’adatul Bolkiah Institute of Health Sciences has expanded beyond solely providing medical training. Graduate Programmes such as MSc in Primary Health Care, Master of Public Health, and Masters and PhD by Research as well as Undergraduate Programmes across five main disciplines – Medicine, Biomedical Sciences, Nursing & Midwifery, Pharmacy and Dentistry are now offered. We ensure the Institute remains relevant and sensitive to the rapidly changing needs of the country. Our programmes are products of a continuous review of our curricula, and indeed, all our undergraduate programmes have undergone major enhancements and are now also designed to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship, and for students to assume leadership roles, tempered with a keen awareness of the environment.

Editorial Board: Contributors: Dr Noor Faizah Mohd Naim Dr Nurolaini Kifli Nabil Abdul Kadir Dr Divya Rajam Dr Chaw Li Ling Ckg Mursidi Hj Ali Mirza Azmi Dr Lim Mei Ann Fakhriedzwan Idris Dr Lu Zen Huat

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IHS Students at University DY Showcase Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) through

the Office of the Assistant Vice Chancellor

(Academic Affairs) held the Discovery Year

Showcase 2018 at the Inspiring Hall, Student

Centre in UBD. The two-day event held from

19th to 20th February 2018 showcases the

work, experience, learning achievements

and talents of UBD students who have

undergone their Discovery Year. This gives

students who are about to take part in their

Discovery year the opportunity to learn from

their experienced peers. They can also learn

about other disciplines, in the hopes that

more multidisciplinary activities and projects

will take place in the future.

The GenNEXT curriculum offers experiential

learning through the Discovery Year

programme during the students' third year

candidature. Under the programme,

students have a choice of one or a mix of the

four choices: Study Abroad programme,

Internship, Incubation project and

Community Outreach Project. The various

options should encourage UBD students to

be independent, proactive and courageous in

their pursuit of knowledge and skills because

these are relevant in shaping their future

careers.

Chinese New Year Celebrated at IHS